animals

San Francisco is a biodiversity hotspot. Its vast parks are home to more than 50 types of mammals. Now, the city named after the patron saint of animals is home to an apex predator, the coyote. The canines can be heard in McLaren Park, Golden Gate Park and the Presidio.

For this story we head down to San Jose, where wild pigs have been causing quite a stir. These big, burly beasts weigh around 300 pounds. All that weight can do a lot of damage when it goes tearing through a suburban lawn or golf course. That’s what these animals have been up to lately around San Jose, especially in the neighborhoods that border rural hillsides. So, in January, the San Jose City Council voted to extend a law that allows licensed people to trap and shoot the animals. The law was set to expire, but now it’s in effect permanently. To find out what this means for San Jose and it’s pig population, KALW’s Audrey Dilling spoke with Terris Kasteen from California Fish and Wildlife.

TERRIS KASTEEN: The pigs come through in one night and the sod is completely roto-tilled. It's torn up. Gone.

Betsy. Buttercup. Bambi. Those are not Disney characters but three of the eight female bison that live at the bison paddock in Golden Gate Park. Sarah King, the primary bison keeper, introduces me to them one afternoon. She works with fellow hoofstock fan, Jim Nappi, Curator of Hoofstock and Marsupials at the San Francisco Zoo. Nappi says he and King share a love for bison.